2004 BMW Z4 2.2SE - nearly a shed
Discussion
Hello PH
I had a moment at the end of April and added a car to the fleet:
The man maths rationale was:
- at the time a 40p per litre differential between petrol and diesel (thank you Mr Trump);
- speculation in the media that diesel would run short (thank you Mr Trump);
- my daily driver L405 proving pretty needy (not least oil service every 4,000 miles and slurping diesel at 28p per mile) so putting the local ish miles on a cheap, lower running cost car instead;
- the benefit of having a spare car when the L405 is having a week at the L-R equivalent of a luxury spa; and
- I was trying to pluck up the courage to get a 125cc motorcycle, but at similar money, a z4 looked simpler and better value.
The real reason was I was missing a manual and a petrol engine. And I just fancied a Z4.
Full disclosure, I didn t tell my wife. She wasn t amused. I tried to point out it cost less than one of her horse saddles BUT it had two seats. Which wasn t well received. Oh well, lesson learned.
I wanted to get a Z4 with a 6 cylinder but decided to go for the 2.2 to try to get the best fuel economy. After all, the business case for this was a cheap to run car for all the local and local-ish miles. And it had to be a manual. A popular car advert website threw up a handful. One was lovely, clearly had a proper PH type owner, but had rust coming through on the wings. I ve already got an L322 in storage with corrosion, so didn t want to have to get into rust on a Z4 if I could help it.
I saw a silver SE with a private seller in the Midlands. The bumper alignment was a touch amiss at the front and it had some upgrades that were not to my taste, but otherwise it seemed ok. I rang up about it. The owner was a nice guy who had had it as a second car for 5 years. He had recently retired, handing back a 3 series company car, so needed to get a more sensible car. As his wife had an SLK the Z4 was surplus.
There was a nice story as to how the owner had come to buy it. Pre-Covid, one of his mates was poorly with cancer. He d always wanted a Z4, so his mate did the proper thing and found one for sale locally and bought it for him. I understand the poorly chap had some good times with it, washing and polishing it more than he drove it. The poor guy joined the list of gone too soon folk, so his friend bought it back and looked after it. It reminded him of his mate. From the records, he d done a few hundred miles per year.
A few days later I went to see it near Kidderminster. Very nice chap selling it. Not quite a PH type, but seemed very decent. I had a look round he took me for a short drive. It all seemed fine. It had a matching set of Bridgestones. He went to show me the operation of the hood. It didn t work. The seller looked shocked. I felt for him. I paid a 10% deposit and the seller undertook to get the roof sorted.
The next day the seller had the roof sorted - nothing more sinister than the roof latches needed lubricating.
So a few days later I went to pick it up. It was a Monday. I got the train to London first thing, had London meetings til 4:30 then hot footed it to Euston to train it up to Kidderminster. Ivor the engine was a bit late so I missed my connection in Birmingham. Eventually getting to Kidderminster at dusk, to be picked up from the station by the super nice seller.
We got back to his house. Now dark. Did the money transfer £2,750 in total and sorted tax and insurance. Then at about 9:00pm I was off into the night, roof down for my first ever drive in a Z4.
I didn t get far before I stopped for the obligatory petrol station photo and a tank of super unleaded.
So it is now 9:30pm. I m in Kidderminster and I have a meeting in London at 9:00am the next morning. My plan was to: keep the roof down; avoid the motorway in a new to me 22year old car that hadn t been used much; and cross the Cotswolds and stay at a delightful place I know north of Oxford.
The drive from Kidderminster to Kidlington was good fun. Everything felt very alien - seating position a touch different to an L405 - but the engine sounded lovely and the gearbox felt so mechanical. The ride was pretty crashy. Wasn t there a song about 2 out of 3 ain t bad?
In true Harry Metcalfe fashion, I arrived at the little place I know .. ahem next to the detention centre in Kidlington:
Day 2 with the Z4 was fairly full commitment.
The next morning I checked the levels, especially the coolant. The oil dipstick was pretty stuck in, requiring a fair old heave with my delicate office worker hands. All seemed ok. So without further ado I pointed the long bonnet east for our nation s fair capital. What could possibly go wrong?
90 minutes later I was queuing along the A40 in very heavy traffic. I remembered the words of Court_S along the lines of early 2000s BMW cooling systems being made of chocolate and hoped they wouldn t come to haunt me.
Here s an (in)action shot somewhere near Acton:
I needn t have worried, the Z4 didn t miss a beat. Well apart from a couple of momentary cut outs to the electrics, but we ll gloss over that. Then safely arrived at Regents Park:
Meeting completed, it was then a case of pointing north and the 200 and a bit miles back to Yorkshire. All went well, just a couple of electrical momentary cut outs under braking.
So there you have it PH - possibly a budget roadster for making daily driving fun and saving miles and running costs on the L405. Inspired or stupid? Please don t be shy with your opinions. If I keep this thread updated, time will tell.
Thanks for reading this far. More updates to follow soon to bring us up to date.
I had a moment at the end of April and added a car to the fleet:
The man maths rationale was:
- at the time a 40p per litre differential between petrol and diesel (thank you Mr Trump);
- speculation in the media that diesel would run short (thank you Mr Trump);
- my daily driver L405 proving pretty needy (not least oil service every 4,000 miles and slurping diesel at 28p per mile) so putting the local ish miles on a cheap, lower running cost car instead;
- the benefit of having a spare car when the L405 is having a week at the L-R equivalent of a luxury spa; and
- I was trying to pluck up the courage to get a 125cc motorcycle, but at similar money, a z4 looked simpler and better value.
The real reason was I was missing a manual and a petrol engine. And I just fancied a Z4.
Full disclosure, I didn t tell my wife. She wasn t amused. I tried to point out it cost less than one of her horse saddles BUT it had two seats. Which wasn t well received. Oh well, lesson learned.
I wanted to get a Z4 with a 6 cylinder but decided to go for the 2.2 to try to get the best fuel economy. After all, the business case for this was a cheap to run car for all the local and local-ish miles. And it had to be a manual. A popular car advert website threw up a handful. One was lovely, clearly had a proper PH type owner, but had rust coming through on the wings. I ve already got an L322 in storage with corrosion, so didn t want to have to get into rust on a Z4 if I could help it.
I saw a silver SE with a private seller in the Midlands. The bumper alignment was a touch amiss at the front and it had some upgrades that were not to my taste, but otherwise it seemed ok. I rang up about it. The owner was a nice guy who had had it as a second car for 5 years. He had recently retired, handing back a 3 series company car, so needed to get a more sensible car. As his wife had an SLK the Z4 was surplus.
There was a nice story as to how the owner had come to buy it. Pre-Covid, one of his mates was poorly with cancer. He d always wanted a Z4, so his mate did the proper thing and found one for sale locally and bought it for him. I understand the poorly chap had some good times with it, washing and polishing it more than he drove it. The poor guy joined the list of gone too soon folk, so his friend bought it back and looked after it. It reminded him of his mate. From the records, he d done a few hundred miles per year.
A few days later I went to see it near Kidderminster. Very nice chap selling it. Not quite a PH type, but seemed very decent. I had a look round he took me for a short drive. It all seemed fine. It had a matching set of Bridgestones. He went to show me the operation of the hood. It didn t work. The seller looked shocked. I felt for him. I paid a 10% deposit and the seller undertook to get the roof sorted.
The next day the seller had the roof sorted - nothing more sinister than the roof latches needed lubricating.
So a few days later I went to pick it up. It was a Monday. I got the train to London first thing, had London meetings til 4:30 then hot footed it to Euston to train it up to Kidderminster. Ivor the engine was a bit late so I missed my connection in Birmingham. Eventually getting to Kidderminster at dusk, to be picked up from the station by the super nice seller.
We got back to his house. Now dark. Did the money transfer £2,750 in total and sorted tax and insurance. Then at about 9:00pm I was off into the night, roof down for my first ever drive in a Z4.
I didn t get far before I stopped for the obligatory petrol station photo and a tank of super unleaded.
So it is now 9:30pm. I m in Kidderminster and I have a meeting in London at 9:00am the next morning. My plan was to: keep the roof down; avoid the motorway in a new to me 22year old car that hadn t been used much; and cross the Cotswolds and stay at a delightful place I know north of Oxford.
The drive from Kidderminster to Kidlington was good fun. Everything felt very alien - seating position a touch different to an L405 - but the engine sounded lovely and the gearbox felt so mechanical. The ride was pretty crashy. Wasn t there a song about 2 out of 3 ain t bad?
In true Harry Metcalfe fashion, I arrived at the little place I know .. ahem next to the detention centre in Kidlington:
Day 2 with the Z4 was fairly full commitment.
The next morning I checked the levels, especially the coolant. The oil dipstick was pretty stuck in, requiring a fair old heave with my delicate office worker hands. All seemed ok. So without further ado I pointed the long bonnet east for our nation s fair capital. What could possibly go wrong?
90 minutes later I was queuing along the A40 in very heavy traffic. I remembered the words of Court_S along the lines of early 2000s BMW cooling systems being made of chocolate and hoped they wouldn t come to haunt me.
Here s an (in)action shot somewhere near Acton:
I needn t have worried, the Z4 didn t miss a beat. Well apart from a couple of momentary cut outs to the electrics, but we ll gloss over that. Then safely arrived at Regents Park:
Meeting completed, it was then a case of pointing north and the 200 and a bit miles back to Yorkshire. All went well, just a couple of electrical momentary cut outs under braking.
So there you have it PH - possibly a budget roadster for making daily driving fun and saving miles and running costs on the L405. Inspired or stupid? Please don t be shy with your opinions. If I keep this thread updated, time will tell.
Thanks for reading this far. More updates to follow soon to bring us up to date.
Edited by Tom4398cc on Friday 26th June 20:43
Next issue (for me anyway) was this:
I appreciate everyone has different tastes. Personally I struggled with the non-factory m colour stripes sitting on the grill of an SE spec car.
So I set to with a small screwdriver, tweezers and not enough patience to try to do something about it:
I spent ages, and didn’t achieve very much.
I appreciate everyone has different tastes. Personally I struggled with the non-factory m colour stripes sitting on the grill of an SE spec car.
So I set to with a small screwdriver, tweezers and not enough patience to try to do something about it:
I spent ages, and didn’t achieve very much.
Next thing was to sort out the wiper blades. The previous owner said he never took it out in the rain so they hadn’t been a priority. Whereas I’m bound to have to go to Lancashire before too long, so effective wiper blades are a priority.
About £50 from my local BMW dealer. I probably could have saved a bit if I’d shopped around so I think that is -1 nearly shed motoring point. Running total 0
About £50 from my local BMW dealer. I probably could have saved a bit if I’d shopped around so I think that is -1 nearly shed motoring point. Running total 0
Tom4398cc said:
Thanks TrevorHill, I think that sums it up nicely
They are great, probably vastly under appreciated cars. I had mine for about four years and it never missed a beat. A pre Covid purchase. I didn’t lose any money on it, but sold it far too cheaply.The M Sport version though only a 2.0 didn’t like overly wet conditions especially with the wider rear tyres but it was still great fun especially when you knew that the back end might pass you at any time.
I’m now going to look on Autotrader. I’ve always fancied the newer hard top convertible but I’m told they’re not as good as the original.
Next up was a trip to the soggy side of the Pennines for a pre-mot check over and Inspection 2 service at The Zed Shed. No, I can’t explain the blue sky in Warrington either?!?
Mike at the Zed Shed said it was ok. Phew! He did an all fluids and filters service and also fitted a second hand leather steering wheel I’d bought. All of which weighed in at £474. I was impressed by The Zed Shed.
So my nearly shed motoring points probably need to go down for not tackling things myself. Say -5. Running Total -7. Hmmm, I’m not doing very well at this.
Mike at the Zed Shed said it was ok. Phew! He did an all fluids and filters service and also fitted a second hand leather steering wheel I’d bought. All of which weighed in at £474. I was impressed by The Zed Shed.
So my nearly shed motoring points probably need to go down for not tackling things myself. Say -5. Running Total -7. Hmmm, I’m not doing very well at this.
The next day, 80 miles post service, I thought I’d check all the fluids. All ok.
But I noticed a plastic engine cover that didn’t look like it was sitting quite right
Now, I’m a soft handed, pasty office worker. So I don’t trust myself to do anything on cars except wash them. But recently, PHer 89forever gave me a motivational speech “it’s only nuts and bolts”. With that rousing encouragement, I resolved to sort it out.
I carefully removed the plastic bolt covers. I figured out I needed a 10mm socket to reach the recessed bolts. I undid the bolts. I re-seated the cover. Looked good. I started re-fitting the bolts. I thought I’d try to do them up evenly, a bit at a time. Which was all well and good until I dropped the 10mm socket down the side of the engine. I got the needle nose pliers and succeeded in ………pushing it a bit further away. Doh!
The photo is deceptive. No chance of getting it back with pliers.
So the walk of shame across the road to borrow a 10mm socket from my neighbour. Got it sorted. Alls well that ends well.
A free fix (admittedly to the problem I created) so I’m giving myself a +1 nearly shed motoring point. Running total -6.
But I noticed a plastic engine cover that didn’t look like it was sitting quite right
Now, I’m a soft handed, pasty office worker. So I don’t trust myself to do anything on cars except wash them. But recently, PHer 89forever gave me a motivational speech “it’s only nuts and bolts”. With that rousing encouragement, I resolved to sort it out.
I carefully removed the plastic bolt covers. I figured out I needed a 10mm socket to reach the recessed bolts. I undid the bolts. I re-seated the cover. Looked good. I started re-fitting the bolts. I thought I’d try to do them up evenly, a bit at a time. Which was all well and good until I dropped the 10mm socket down the side of the engine. I got the needle nose pliers and succeeded in ………pushing it a bit further away. Doh!
The photo is deceptive. No chance of getting it back with pliers.
So the walk of shame across the road to borrow a 10mm socket from my neighbour. Got it sorted. Alls well that ends well.
A free fix (admittedly to the problem I created) so I’m giving myself a +1 nearly shed motoring point. Running total -6.
And to bring things up to date, a clean MoT today:
So far, so happy. I’m enjoying the Z4. I think I will need to change the tyres before too long. 11 year old run flats do give a rubbish ride. I’m caught between trying to run things at a low cost, and the improvement in ride quality a set of new non-run flat tyres would give.
So far, so happy. I’m enjoying the Z4. I think I will need to change the tyres before too long. 11 year old run flats do give a rubbish ride. I’m caught between trying to run things at a low cost, and the improvement in ride quality a set of new non-run flat tyres would give.
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